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A few clouds early, otherwise mostly sunny. High 51F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Partly cloudy. Low 26F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.

Leryan Lewis has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for cutting a woman with a razor blade.

Leryan Lewis has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for cutting a woman with a razor blade.

A man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for cutting a woman with a razor blade outside a local gas station last year.

Leryan G. Lewis will serve the time in the Missouri Department of Corrections after being found guilty of first-degree assault and armed criminal action for attacking the woman at a Bucky’s gas station in February 2021. He was sentenced by Judge Patrick Robb to 15 years on the assault charge and five years on the armed criminal action charge. Lewis will serve the sentences consecutive to each other, and he will not be eligible for parole until he has completed more than 15 years of the sentence.

According to a press release from the Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the victim of the assault testified that Lewis cut her neck and fingers with a razor blade while they were sitting in a car outside the gas station on Feb. 12, 2021. Bystanders helped the woman when she got out of the car, and St. Joseph police arrested Lewis as he attempted to flee the scene. Lewis and the victim were in a relationship before the assault, prosecutors said.

The victim survived the attack after emergency surgery. However, she still has limited mobility in her neck a year later, she told the jury.

Joshua Bachman, an assistant prosecuting attorney, played several recordings of phone calls made by Lewis to the victim at the sentencing. In the calls, Lewis urged the victim to leave the area and not testify against him.